


Astronaut Wings

by lirin



Category: Captain Marvel (2019)
Genre: Gen, IN SPACE!, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:00:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25742485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lirin/pseuds/lirin
Summary: Auntie Carol comes home for a visit, and takes Monica and her alien best friend for a ride in the Quadjet.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8
Collections: Battleship 2020, Battleship 2020 - Yellow Team





	Astronaut Wings

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GlassesOfJustice](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GlassesOfJustice/gifts).



"We just crossed the Kármán line," Auntie Carol announces, tapping on one of the digital displays. She doesn't touch the throttle, though, and the Quadjet keeps soaring upwards without a pause. "You know what that means?"

"Yeah, it means I'm officially an astronaut now!" Monica says. "The youngest American in space! Sally Ride's officially the youngest, but she was way older than fifteen. She was even older than you were when you first went to space."

"Too bad we're not gonna tell anybody you were up here," Auntie Carol says. "But maybe we can make you some unauthorized astronaut wings anyway."

"What do astronauts use wings for?" asks Nic. She's at the Quadjet's side viewport looking back down at Earth. "Do you mean the wings of their space shuttles, or something else?"

"They're not wings for flying," Auntie Carol says (and she's the only person in this Quadjet who's flown without wings, so Monica supposes that makes her an expert on the topic). "It's a military badge that's shaped like wings. NASA gives it to astronauts, which they define as anyone who's reached an altitude of sixty-two miles above Earth. You've earned it too, many times over. But I don't think the government is going to give either of you official wings. Not unless one of you gets a job for NASA when you grow up."

"I could sim somebody who works at NASA," Nic says.

"You could sim Sally Ride!" Monica suggests.

"Not until you've had a lot more practice simming," Auntie Carol says firmly. "And not without both of your parents' permission, too. And you are not simming Sally Ride. Actually, you shouldn't sim any astronauts. They're all too famous and people would notice, and besides you have plenty of ways of getting to space without hijacking a space shuttle mission or whatever you had in mind."

She lapses back into silence, adjusting a few controls that Monica's not sure what they do, but they're probably important. Monica unbuckles her seat harness and floats over to the side viewport to watch Earth with her alien BFF. It looks so blue from up here, and there's white streaks of clouds all over it, just like the pictures they show in school.

"Our new home planet looks kind of like Earth," Nic says. "It's a predominately water planet with land masses, but the water is a lot more purple. And the clouds are kind of yellow."

"It sounds pretty," Monica says. "Almost as pretty as Earth," she adds with a teasing grin. "Auntie Carol, when do I get to go visit Nic's planet? She's gotten to visit mine twice now!"

It took ages to arrange this visit, though. Both her mom and Nic's parents and Auntie Carol had to agree, and all four of them were worried about the risks if an alien was discovered on Earth. The compromise ended up being that whenever they're not inside the Rambeaus' house, Nic sims Monica (except for her eyes, 'cause Monica made her promise) and then Mom fixes her hair differently, and they introduce her as "Cousin Nicolette, from up north". They mostly call her Nic or Nicky, though, since that's short for her real name Renic as well as the pretend one, so there's less risk of anybody messing up.

"Not till you're older," Auntie Carol says, which Monica supposes is better than nothing.

"How much older?"

"I haven't decided," she answers, and that _isn't_ better than nothing.

Nic's skin ripples and splits until she looks exactly like Auntie Carol. "Actually, I was thinking that you should go ahead and tag along with us when we go back to New Skrullos," she says in Auntie Carol's voice. "I'm sure nobody would mind."

"Yeah, _that's_ not gonna work," Auntie Carol says, but she's smiling. "And what did your dad tell you about simming people you know?"

"That it's good for practice, and I need a lot of practice?"

"I think she means the part where you're supposed to ask first," Monica stage whispers.

"Oh, right. Aunt Carol, may I please practice simming you?"

"Yes you may, but only if you promise not to kidnap my _other_ favorite niece on our return trip. And you can't conspire to let her stow away, either."

"But—" Both Nic and Monica start to say at once.

"I promise, as soon as we can arrange for Monica to visit, we will. But it's a long trip, and we'd have to schedule it around school."

"If we did it right after I graduate high school, I could take a gap year," Monica says. "Traveling the galaxy would be very educational. Maybe I could even learn how to build my own spaceship."

Nic's sim of Auntie Carol starts to look a bit melty and begins to crack in places. For a minute or so, she looks like some kind of weird half-human half-Skrull hybrid, and then she finally looks like herself again.

"I think your transitions are getting faster," Monica says encouragingly. (They're still, like, way slower than any adult Skrulls she's ever seen, but she doesn't mention that part.)

"I sure hope so," Nic says.

"You're doing great," Auntie Carol says.

"Yeah, you sounded exactly like Auntie Carol," Monica says. "But I bet I know the real reason why you simmed her."

"Why?"

"'Cause then you get to be taller than me!" Monica says with a grin. "But I'm almost as tall as Auntie Carol these days, so I bet the next time you visit that won't do you any good any more."

Nic laughs. In her true form, she's about half an inch shorter than Monica...not that anybody can tell when they're up here floating all over the place.

"Okay, girls, back in your seats," Auntie Carol says. "If you don't mind a few G's, I think we'll take this next bit a little faster."

"Yes, please!" Monica says. She kicks off of the side of the Quadjet and does a backwards somersault to head back to her seat. Behind her, Nic heads back more sedately, propelling herself with her arms so that it almost looks like she's swimming.

"Monica's the newbie astronaut here," Auntie Carol says, "so I think she gets to decide where we go next. Is there any part of the world you want to see in particular?"

"Is it nighttime in Europe yet? I want to see one of the big cities all lit up at night."

Auntie Carol checks one of the displays. "It's downright past your bedtime in Europe, and that's even with the way your mom lets you stay up so late now that you're older. Is everybody buckled up?"

They both give her a thumbs up.

"The City of Light, coming right up," Auntie Carol says, and hits the thrusters.

Monica grins as the acceleration pushes her back into her seat. So far, being an astronaut is everything it's cracked up to be.


End file.
